of the late Crystal Palace,
all original images public
domain, it was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in
Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, the 990,000 square
foot building with its 128 foot high ceiling was completed in thirty-nine weeks, when the exhibition closed it was then moved to an open area of South London known as Penge Place which
had been excised from Penge Common, it was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak
next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large villas, it stood there from
June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936, the nearby
residential area was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark,
as it happens my father, a nipper at the time, can remember
when living in Plumstead the night sky red with the glow of the fire so many
miles away, and the good news is that a Crystal Palace enthusiast, Brian White,
colourised a set of amazing pictures of what the palace looked like, Brian, 54,
from Poole in Dorset, has loved the palace since he bought a book about the
palace as a child, and then visited the site with his family, Brian loves the
palace and the magic he felt as a kid has never left him. He visits the remains
of the palace in Crystal Palace Park when he has a chance as he finds it
"very magical and awe-inspiring." He continued: "The fact that
you can still touch pieces of the Crystal Palace is magical. You can still see
six sphynxes and three different flights of steps. If you know the layout of
the palace you can figure out exactly where you are, and here are some more
lovely colourised images from Brian,
above and below, after the fire,
since our return to the UK we have often
walked around Crystal Palace Park, a couple of visits here and here, and looked at the dinosaurs there, many thanks to Brian for making such wonderful coloured photographs, after seeing so many black and white ones over the years his renditions really bring life to the palace.
No comments:
Post a Comment